Ryan’s
decision to remove critical riders from the Omnibus budget bill that intended
to stop the EPA’s
radical and statutorily unauthorized new rules that could devastate America’s
coal and farming industries is just the most recent version of the GOP white
flag.

A
vote on the Omnibus budget deal is imminent in the House, now that it has passed the
companion tax bill.

The
first environmental rider was designed to legislatively neuter the
controversial Waters of the U.S. rule, published in June, in which the EPA and
the Army
Corps of Engineers seek to regulate puddles on private property.
Earlier this week, the Government Accountability Office issued a report
that said the agency’s social media campaign in support of the rule was
illegal. In October, a federal appeals court placed a stay on the regulation, a
consequence of litigation brought by 22 states.

The
second environmental rider was designed to invalidate the controversial coal
fired power plant carbon dioxide emissions reduction rule, also finalized in June.

As
the Daily Signalreported,
both of these conservative-backed environmental riders were among the 150
conservative riders Ryan unceremoniously dropped to insure the bill receives
enough Democrat votes to pass.

The
Washington Post was quick to declare
Ryan’s cave-in to the environmental radicals a complete victory for Democrats:

CLEAN
WATER

Democratic
win.
The Environmental
Protection Agency’srecent update
of clean water regulations, known as the “Waters of the United States” rule,
extended federal protection to new U.S. waterways — and provoked a stern
response from Republicans, who said it would have a grave impact on farmers,
ranchers and businesses. Democrats filibustered GOP attempts to block the rule
this fall, and a push to include a rider in the spending bill also fell short.
But the new regulations are on hold in any case: The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Sixth Circuit put the so-called “WOTUS” rule on hold in October.

CLIMATE
CHANGE

Democratic
win.
Republicans hoped to attack President Obama’s climate change agenda from at
least two fronts. For one, they have tried to strike down or at least delay the
Clean Power Plan rules issued by the down or at least delay the Clean Power
Plan rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the first federal
effort to limit carbon emissions from U.S. power plants.

If
anything, the Washington Post downplayed the scope of the Democratic
victory. Speaker Ryan readily bent to the will of radical liberals on these environmental
riders.

Both
the Waters of the U.S. and coal fired power plant carbon dioxide emission
reduction rules represented new lows in Obama administration advocacy far
beyond statutory authority.

It
is not the Congress of the United States that’s making energy law in America
today. Instead, it is far left bureaucrats in the Obama administration and
their wealthy far left ideologue friends who run a handful of environmental
activist groups and OFA.

The
kabuki theater process by which the EPA demanded states reduce carbon dioxide
emissions from coal power plants by 32 percent through regulatory fiat is just
the most recent and most egregious example of this subversion of the law.

Consider
these facts:

(1)
There is no statutory authority for the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions,
and particularly from coal fired power plants.

(2)
A dozen liberal states, including Connecticut, where current EPA Administrator
Gina McCarthy at the time served as head of the Department of Environmental
Protection, performed an end run around Congress in 2007, and persuaded five
liberal judges on the Supreme Courtto
legislate from the bench and declare carbon dioxide a pollutant in the case
Massachusetts v. EPA.

(3)
When the rule was proposed in June 2014, its key enforcement
mechanism—requiring states to develop carbon dioxide emission level compliance
rather than specifying pollution control equipment—had no statutory authority.

(4)
The public comment period from June 2014 to December 2014 was conducted in
close cooperation with ideological allies, such as Organizing for Action. The
agency highlighted supporters and ignored opponents of the rule.

The
WOTUS rule was equally egregious. In May, the House passed
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) 47%’s bill, the Regulatory Integrity
Protection Act, which would stop it, but the Senate has failed to act on that
legislation.

“Pennsylvania’s
farmers, homebuilders, and small businesses are a backbone of our economy and
the EPA’s attempt to stifle their growth through this federal power grab will
cause great harm to our region,” Shuster said three months
later in August when a federal district judge stayed the rule. He added:

The
House has passed my legislation, H.R.1732 the Regulatory Integrity Protection
Act, which would require the EPA to withdraw their [Waters of the U.S.] rule
and go back to the drawing board. I will continue urging them to reconsider
this misguided proposal, which creates a new level of unchecked government
expansion that tramples state and local government rights along with the
individuals that will be forced to face major government fines that will
cripple their businesses.

Conservatives
included a rider to the Omnibus budget bill designed to accomplish the
objectives of the Regulatory Integrity Protection Act the House passed in May,
but Ryan took that rider out as well.

Back
in November, Ryan gave conservatives some hope he might push for their agenda,
as Politico reported at
the time:

Here’s
what the Republican wish list includes: block Waters of the United States
regulations that some Democratic moderates also oppose; overwrite a proposed
fiduciary rule that would make brokers legally liable for the investment advice
they give to customers; kill the EPA’s clean power plan, which Republicans fear
will hurt home-state coal companies; and continue to chip away at Obamacare.

But
in the cold December light of Inside-the-Beltway realpolitik, Ryan’s private
dinner with Democratic Majority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) 9%
in his Capitol Hill office last week, catered by a local steakhouse, held more
sway in his final decisions about the Omnibus budget bill than those November
promises he made to his more conservative GOP colleagues.

Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan is a member&
speaker for the U.S. House of
Representatives, a member of the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, was a recipient of
"Defender of the American Dream" award from the Americans for Prosperity, and a guest at the Koch Industries annual conference.

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Who Is Aristotle the Hun

"Aristotle the Hun" was the name given to me more than 30 years ago when a friend noticed that in spite of my intellect I was still an Iowa farm boy.

Rev. Sam Sewell, is Director of Best Self USA, a Pastoral Psychotherapist, serves on the faculty of Naples Community Hospital as an instructor for Clinical Pastoral Education, President of the Theological Center in Naples, a member of Mensa where he serves as Gifted Youth Coordinator, a U.S. Navy Veteran, and a Member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He is a frequent commentator on mental health and religious issues.His award winning research on family issues is published in several languages. Member of Sigma Delta Chi Honor Society

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Quotation Gallery

"Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men."- St. Augustine

"A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." -

William James

"This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men." --Ronald Reagan

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."-- Edward Abbey

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."John Stuart Mill

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." ~~~George Washington

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University." William F. Buckley, Jr.

"Conservatives are enemies of the government. Liberals are enemies of the nation because they are not enemies of the government."Aristotle the Hun

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"Albert Einstein

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ANON

"That government is best which governs least."Thomas Paine

“A nation that substitutes emotion and empathy for rational thought will eventually digress into the Dark Ages,”Congressman Steve King (R-IA),

INTEGRITY: The highest courage is to dare to be ourself in the face of adversity. Choosing ethics over convenience and truth over popularity means there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

They may be more likely to go to Heaven for good intentions yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.~ C. S. Lewis

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." ANON

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